The Chicago City Council on Monday examined Mayor Brandon Johnson's plan to quickly budget hundreds of millions of federal dollars for coronavirus relief before an impending year-end deadline.
During a daylong hearing before the City Council's Budget and Government Operations Committee, Johnson's top deputies and administration commissioners gave a detailed look at how the city plans to spend the nearly $345 million in unspent American Rescue Plan Act funds earmarked for community initiatives.
The city has been slow to spend the nearly $1.9 billion in pandemic relief funds it first received under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. The majority of the money — $1.3 billion — went to cover city operating expenses, with the remaining $576 million slated to return to communities through programming. The city faces a year-end deadline to allocate $206 million to community programs, and all relief dollars must be spent by the end of 2026 — or risk being returned to the federal government.
Overall, the city had budgeted 89% of the federal money and spent 82% of it, as of late May.
But some local council members questioned the areas in which the administration chose to invest. I give birth. Bill Conway (34), who has called for increased City Council oversight of federal relief funds, said the city's long-term financial health should be a bigger priority.
“We could have done a better job rather than having our goals simply not return the money and send it to community groups for a few years before — I'm afraid — we pull the rug out from under them in three years,” Conway said. “And it might have been a little bit more ambitious in terms of By improving the city broadly over the long term.” “I also think we could have cleaned up the CTA completely, and I think over time that would have paid for itself through increased ridership.”
In an effort to get dollars out more quickly, the Johnson administration is diverting more than $80 million while it reevaluates which programs will continue to receive funding — and which will in turn be discontinued or diverted to other funding sources.
“The funding is going to end. That's a fact. “The commitment analysis that we've done is actually to look at each individual program in a very systematic way to understand how they're going to be able to commit and how they're going to be able to spend it,” Chief Operating Officer John Roberson said.
Overall, 53 programs will be funded, including an additional $31.5 million to launch another round of a popular guaranteed income pilot program offering $500 monthly payments to low-income residents and expanding so-called CARE Alternative Response Teams, where paramedics and health workers respond Mentality. For mental health emergencies – instead of the police. The city plans to publish a website and dashboard detailing spending and monthly reports to City Council.
I give birth. Jason Ervin (28th), Chairman of the Budget and Government Operations Committee, said he is “challenged” by the guaranteed income pilot program, which he described as “more like an expense” than a long-term investment through tools like job training that can “pay off.” . Profits are on the way.”
“If you have to choose between giving an individual an extra amount of money versus helping an individual through a period where they're doing something that will, in the end, create a better alternative or a better life or training… to me it's an investment,” Irvin said.
“What do we do in month 13 when we've helped people and then come to the end of that?” Asked.
Budget Director Annette Guzman stressed that the city has targeted workforce development programs, and that providing the guaranteed income program is “both and” and not “either or.”
The Johnson administration has formed an advisory group to make recommendations on eligibility and outreach for the new pilot round of payments, renamed the Chicago Empowerment Fund.
Many participants in the unrelated income program told WBEZ and the Sun-Times that it helped them cover unexpected emergencies or kept them above water financially. But many of them indicated that they wished it had lasted longer than one year. Demand greatly outstripped supply in the first round, with more than 176,000 people applying for just 5,000 opportunities.
Rosalia Grelier, a longtime community organizer and family activist, said Monday that the guaranteed income pilot helped her “feel human again.”
“I've been able to pay my bills without robbing Peter to pay Paul and raise John. I've been able to rebuild my credit,” Greller said. “It has allowed me to live outside of the abject poverty I was living in before the pilot.”
An infusion of federal relief dollars has helped the city's public health department expand its workforce amid hundreds of vacant positions. Of the additional 89 positions, about half are dedicated to expanding the city's CARE Alternative Response Teams to include mental health emergencies. The teams operate in six police districts and have served nearly 1,400 people without any arrests. Force was used in less than 5% of responses, according to city health department figures.
Johnson announced last week that the city would phase out police and Chicago Fire Department emergency medical services from teams. The Department of Public Health will pilot teams operating entirely from within the Department of Health, freeing up officers and fire department staff in turn.
But despite the backing of federal funds to expand programs like CARE, the department is still struggling to hire enough staff, leading to a decline in its allocation of federal relief funds, Public Health Commissioner Dr. Simbo Ege told council members.
“There's a national health care workforce shortage, so it's taken us a while to be able to bring people on board. We're right-sizing based on what we expect to be able to hire up to 55 EMTs going forward,” Ige said. “So this is a work in progress.”
Two programs that were scheduled to receive federal bailout funding — a proposed 20-bed center to support people recovering from alcohol poisoning and a low-barrier shelter program to connect people experiencing homelessness with housing — will be canceled due to an inability to find a program, budget officials said in the Earlier, officials said by the end of this year.
Tessa Weinberg covers Chicago government and politics for WBEZ.
